since we have been married my husband jokes that i only buy ingredients and not food at the store. I KIND OF LIKE THAT. these are my adventures of preparing meals with basic, real food ingredients and eliminating convenience foods.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

We finished the 30 day challenge with some good success. Kip lost around 30 pounds and I lost 14.6. As we continue on our healthy journey, I am going to continue using some of the meal plans and recipes from the 30 day plan. It was an interesting month and I think I learned a lot.

The number one, hands down top thing that I have learned is that planning is essential. The only thing that matters more is our personal motivation. As long as we planned what what we are going to eat, planned when we were going to the store. and planned the time to pack our lunches and snacks then we were very successful. The first week or so, that process seemed to take forever. As we moved through the month though, it did get much easier and became more of a habit. I do most all of the food planning and prep in our house, because it works best for us in our house. Kip does help though and while I am cooking breakfast, he is usually pulling out food that has been prepped and then helping get lunches and snacks together.

Another think that is important has been making sure that we do eat those snacks, at planned times about halfway between meals. Our favorite snack? Vanilla yogurt with some fruit; raspberries and strawberries for Kip. Sometimes we sprinkle a little granola on top, but it is delicious! We also learned more about healthy portion sizes.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Oops, I haven't been posting daily! However we are still following our healthy eating plan. We decided that if we are both off on Friday nights that we will have a dinner out. Kip decided that would be a good idea to give me a break from cooking so I don't get burned out from all the extra cooking that I have been doing. Last night we did go out and we ate at my favorite sushi restaurant. We had a nice meal and I think we did a good job of keeping our mind focused on what would be the healthier options. For example, no fried calamari for an appetizer, we had steamed edamame instead. One of our goals is to stop drinking sodas too, so we both stuck with water to drink.

This morning we knew that we would be making a trip to the grocery store so I had the list of what we needed already prepared, and we took off for the store. Since we have found that eating healthier is costing us a little more money we decided to hit Aldi first to see if we could get the majority of what we needed there. It was worth it, we were able to save quite a bit over what we spent last week. Kip also likes shopping there because it is much quicker than in the regular store. There were a couple of things that I was not able to find there, but it was still worth the time and money that we were able to save. I honestly think Kip was more excited over the time savings than he was the money! Bless his heart, he almost always does the grocery shopping with me and I am not known for my fast shopping. I have to look at everything in the store.

As I made my list this week, I noted how much total I would need for several ingredients that could be prepped ahead of time. For instance, I know how many cups of chopped onions I will need for the entire week so I can do that all today instead of having to chop onions almost every day. I am hoping that that will cut down on the daily meal preparation time.

As we finish our first week, I will sum it up by saying that I think we have done well. The first day or two was a little rough, but we are adjusting quickly. Both of us have seen some improvement on the scale. I will post our weight loss numbers on Monday which is our "official" weigh in day. Kip says he feels more alert. I have also cut my coffee consumption way back, I am not trying to stop drinking coffee, I was just drinking too much. I have not had any ill effects from that and am surprised I am alert as I have been with that going on. I think next week will be smoother as we are getting into a routine with packing our lunches and snacks and the goal is to add more movement.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Wow, there is a lot off prep work and cooking to eating healthy! Today went well too, although someone offered me a chocolate chip cookie and I ate one without thinking. Other than that the day went well and I was able to do part of the prep work for tomorrow, but Kip is going to have to finish it. Since I am gone overnight two or three nights a week, I am having to pack more food on those days to make sure that what I am eating will be healthy. Those are the days too, that I have been most tempted to get fast food or junk food. Tonight was one of my favorite meals; chili! I made this particular healthy recipe and took to a chili dinner at church and it got rave reviews and we really like it too.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Day one started with the dreaded weighing in on the scales. Ugh. I knew I had gained some weight, but not quite that much. Today started the change though. I really don't believe it matters which diet program you follow as long as it is nutritionally balanced. What really matters is your mindset, your determination and your commitment to making a change.

In any healthy eating plan a certain amount of planning has to take place. If the meals are planned in advance, then it is much easier for me to decide to eat healthy. If it is getting late and I don't have anything planned, it is just too easy to go through a drive through or to eat a bag of microwave popcorn. I was so glad that we took the time after Kip got home from the grocery store to pack our lunches and snacks for today. That was a big time saver this morning. I was able to cook our breakfasts and still get out of the door on time.

Another motivator for me is that I am trying to exercise and lose some weight to try and get my pain levels back in control. It has rained here every day for a week and that doesn't help anything, but today was a really bad day. My back has hurt all day.

Since I was in pain, it was so nice to already have most of dinner taken care of. Kip is working tonight though, so I did tomorrow's prep work by myself. He has committed to helping with this but due to both of our work schedules, there are some days that most of it will fall on me and other days that the majority of the work will fall on him. We are a team and we will work through that.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

We went through our first week of menus on our new eating plan. Kip so bravely volunteered to go to the grocery store alone. I certainly took him up on that offer! I made the list and he took off on his own. More than half of the grocery list was produce. While he was there some woman came up to him and asked if he was a chef, I guess because he was buying so much fresh stuff. I do think it is odd that eating healthy is so much more expensive than eating not so healthy. Well, hopefully we are off to a good start, our food is prepped and packed for tomorrow. Join us as I chart our progress!

My husband and I have decided it is time to start being healthier people. About this time last year, we started following the Biggest Loser Diet plan. We both saw some great progress with this plan. We both lost some weight, we were feeling better, we both needed new clothes, and we both saw some improvement in our health. At one point, we were even able to go on a hike that nature trail that wasn't the easiest trail. But then life got a little crazy and we stopped. One is the biggest problems with this plan was the fact that it, like any other healthy eating plan requires preplanning. You have to plan you meals, plan the snacks and plan to go to the store. But, like the quote above, we know that by not planning and having healthy foods in the house has led to us grabbing something quick and that often involved eating out in restaurants.

We have decided that tomorrow begins out new journey. We have missed the foods we ate on the Biggest Loser eating plan. We miss the energy that we had. Kip did manage to keep most of his weight off but I did not. I miss wearing those smaller jeans! We have committed to each other to go back on the Biggest Loser eating plan and are using the book The Biggest Loser 30 Day Jump Start. There are several reasons we chose this eating plan over all the others that are out there. First of all, we saw success when we followed it before. The foods were good, nutritious, we weren't hungry all the time, and it is already laid out and all we have to do it follow it. Another thing I likes was there weren't any weird food rules, you know, like you can only eat broccoli--standing on one foot--while balancing on stairs--wearing high heels. This book has each of the thirty days broken down with the food, recipes, exercise all right there together so that takes a lot of the planning off of us which will hopefully allow us to be more successful.

Weight loss is a goal, but our primary focus is going to be on becoming healthier and feeling better. I know for myself, since I deal with chronic back pain from post-surgical scoliosis that if I carry less weight and exercise regularly that I can control my pain better.

Hopefully I can get Kip to contribute here occasionally too! Check back to see our progress on our journey to being healthier.